Leveraging Java for Great User Experiences and the Internet of Things

September 16, 2009

Adding feeds to SpeedReaderFX that don't *quite* comply with the RSS/Atom formats

When adding more feeds to the SpeedReaderFX application's Criteria dialog, I found that some of them don't *quite* comply with RSS/Atom formats. For example, I thought it'd be cool to have RSS feeds from Engadget and Gizmodo (what self-respecting geek wouldn't want those feeds?) I also wanted to have a daily dose of Dilbert delivered, but in these three cases the JavaFX RSS API reported that the dates for the feed items were just prior to the OS epoch.

Naturally, I consulted the RSS/Atom Smasher himself (Rakesh Menon) and he instructed me in the ways of creating a custom feed parser, which I added to SpeedReaderFX. Here's a partial screenshot of the Criteria dialog where you can select the Gizmodo, Engadget, TechCrunch, and Dilbert feeds:

For more information about the SpeedReaderFX application, check out the first post in the SpeedReaderFX category of this blog. To run the application, click the SpeedReaderFX icon located on the left side of this paragraph.

By the way, one of the next things that SpeedReaderFX needs is a GUI makeover (I've received lots of helpful feedback in that regard, and my graphical skills are admittedly weak). Please leave a comment to this post if you have ideas or graphic comps that would make this look more like an iPhone app. SpeedReaderFX is a sample in the open source JFXtras project, and your contributions to the appearance of this application would be much appreciated and acknowledged on this blog.